28th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Congress assessment mission

Elections for the Governor (Bashkan) and partial elections in the Popular Assembly of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of GAGAUZIA, Republic of Moldova (22 March 2015)

Speaking notes by Lars O. MOLIN, (Sweden, EPP/CCE), Congress member

Dear colleagues,

Given the fact that the delegation returned only yesterday evening from this mission, you will understand that my report will focus only on the most important issues. A more detailed written information report will be prepared for the next meeting of this Committee.

Due to the specific nature of this vote (elections in a region with special status in the Republic of Moldova) and the tight calendar just before the Congress' Session, the Congress deployed a delegation at smaller scale comprising five members, two colleagues from the Committee of the Regions and three Congress staff members to assess the election of the Governor (or "Bashkan") of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia held on Sunday, 22 March. I was the Head of this delegation.

On Friday and Saturday we had a series of high-level meetings in Chisinau and Comrat including Ambassadors, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Regional Development and Constructions, the Chairmen of both Central Election Commissions of Moldova and Gagauzia, the President of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia and - not least - most of the 10 candidates for Bashkan, among them also the Mayor of the capital city Comrat.

On Election Day, five Congress' teams visited practically all the 65 polling stations in the three electoral districts - Comrat, Ceadir-Lunga and Vulcanesti. The election was organised in an overall calm and peaceful atmosphere, technically well prepared and without major incidents, with the exception of a mistake in the counting of ballots which created some tension in a polling station in the morning. The staff in most of the polling stations were experienced and received training from the Central Election Commission in Chisinau.

However, there are three issues to be mentioned in the context of the electoral law and the management of this vote:

- first, the inconsistency between the Republic of Moldova and the Gagauz region with regard to legal provisions (for example, according to the Moldovan Electoral Code, the Saturday before an election is a so-called silent day; the Gagauz local law does not say anything about this issue and therefore campaigning went on also on Saturday);

- second, the considerably high number of voters on supplementary lists throughout the region (due to erroneous or not sufficiently up-dated voters' lists which were collected by the local authorities;  the electronic voters' lists based on the state register provided by the Central Election Commission of Moldova on the occasion of the last Parliamentary Election were not in use this time);

- third, the question of campaign financing of different candidates, notably with regard to the campaign of Irina VLAH who was openly supported by high-ranking Russian officials and invited the citizens to free concerts in public places with prominent artists from Moscow; since the Gagauz law does not make it obligatory for donors to make their contributions public, there were heated discussions about the sponsors of these - apparently very expensive - concerts.

Since the 41 year old VLAH won the Sunday election with 51% in front of the Mayor of Comrat, Nicolai DUDOGLU, with 19,5 %, and Valeri IANIOGLU with 7,96%, clearly already in the first round, these discussions will certainly be going on. 

Apart from the campaign and financing of different actors in the background, the crucial question will be the political, economic and societal future of Gagauzia under Irina VLAH, the first female Bashkan in history. - And, most evidently, future relations of this region - with a large majority of Russian-speakers and exile workers in Moscow - with the central government in Chisinau. As Governor of Gagauzia Irina VLAH is ex-officio member of the Moldovan Government. During the meeting with the Congress' delegation she underlined her readiness to implement a pragmatic, result-oriented dialogue with Chisinau and to co-operate not only with Russia but also other partners in the European Union and in Turkey.

Therefore, I think it will be very interesting for the European institutions - and particularly for us in the Congress - to follow very closely what kind of concrete policy measures and action will be followed to the announcements made by the new Bashkan of Gagauzia.

Thank you for your attention!